Simulation of Ad Hoc Networks with DSR Protocol∗

An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile hosts forming a temporary network without the aid of any established infrastructure or centralized administration. In such an environment, it may be necessary for one mobile host to want the aid of other hosts in forwarding a packet to its destination, due to the limited range of each mobile host's wireless transmissions. In this paper Ad Hoc networks and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) algorithm is presented. 1 Definition of Ad Hoc Networks Wireless networks (IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Group) can be classified in two types: First, infrastructured network which consists of a network with fixed and wired gateways (Tanenbaum 1996). A mobile host communicates with a bridge in the network (called base station) within its communication radius. The mobile unit can move geographically while it is communicating. Figure 1: Simple ad hoc network When it goes out of the range of one base station, it connects with a new fixed base station and starts communicating through it. Second, infrastructureless (ad hoc) networks: In ad hoc networks all nodes are mobile and can be connected dynamically in an arbitrary manner. All nodes of these networks behave as routers and take part in discovery and maintenance of routes to other nodes in the network. Figure 1 shows a simple ad hoc network. Mobile A wants to send a packet to Mobile C but C is out of the range, so Mobile B relays A's packets to Mobile C. Ad hoc networks consist of wireless mobile hosts that communicate with each other in the absence of a fixed infrastructure. There are various usages of ad hoc networks, two of them are: emergency search-and-rescue operations and data transfer in inhospitable terrain. ∗ This work is supported by the State Planning Organization of Turkey under the grant number DPT98K120890.